Posts tagged ‘life design’

The internet overflows with inspiration. Encouraging memes? Cheerleading blog posts? Want to hear that you’re awesome, you’re beautiful, you’re full of potential? No problem. We can spend hour upon hour feasting on words and images that fill us up and heal our wounds — at least on the surface. It feels good and can be extremely addictive.

At a certain point, however, you may look around and find yourself holding an empty bag. One day the interwebs aren’t as satisfying, even though you can still spend an entire afternoon on Pinterest and Instagram. Because it isn’t enough to see the vast beauty of the universe as it speeds by. We want to do something. We want to use our talents, not just affirm that they exist. We need to use our creativity to make meaning. All the pretty stuff starts to look like a whole lot of fluff and not a lot of substance. It’s an echo chamber to which many of us unwittingly contribute. That’s not a bad thing, but it might not serve you.

Get out the map

A Life of Intention: Your self-paced, virtual weekend retreat is a simple way to realign with what matters. You don’t need to reinvent sliced bread — or yourself. You already have plenty of ideas about where you want to go and what you want to do. But if you’re feeling adrift, those ideas and instincts need to be clarified. You need a plan. You don’t need to spend a bajillion dollars figuring it out — and there isn’t any magic system (God, how I wish there were a magic system!) that can have you waking up at dawn, completing masterpieces by noon, and serving your family gourmet, locally sourced meals every night while you prance around an immaculate dream house in your skinny jeans.

If only.

But maybe your reality is actually better than that. It is, after all, yours.

A Life of Intention is the gentle nudge and thoughtful friend that reconnects you with what matters. The program isn’t rocket science. It doesn’t take hours upon hours to complete, because we all know that you had all those hours at your disposal, you wouldn’t be feeling at loose ends.

When you purchase the self-paced, virtual weekend retreat, you will receive the access code to the retreat page via e-mail. There you will find the three sessions in full, with links to the documents you’ll need to download. You can complete all three sessions in one go, or spread them out — whatever works for you. If you don’t have a weekend to yourself, you can complete the assignments around the edges of your day. Your access code will be valid for 60 days. When you’ve completed the sessions, you’ll have a road map for the next 12 months and beyond.

Share this:

Like this:

It all started innocently enough. Meeting with my friend Ellen Olson-Brown. Coffee. Laptops. Good intentions about productively working side by side on our individual writing projects.

But the laptops sat closed while we blabbed and laughed and wondered. We discovered that we share similar goals: to be true to ourselves, engaged in meaningful work, and kind and nurturing to the planet and the people we love. We want to be fierce when necessary and joyful whenever possible. We want to minimize the overwhelm, and maximize peace and positivity.

We bonded over our decades of fascination with teachers, ideas, strategies, and tools that have moved us closer to those goals in our own lives. We swooned over names like Byron Katie, Tara Brach, and Shakti Gawain the way a preteen grows weak in the knees at the mention of Justin Bieber.

As we shared our passion for a life well lived, we also realized that we had highly complementary skill sets: Ellen as a teacher, me as a coach, and the two of us experienced in squeezing every drop out of the gift of being alive.

Wouldn’t it be fun, we wondered, to share what we have so gratefully learned? To help others explore our time-tested methods of becoming ever truer to ourselves and lives of meaning? Our collaboration in life design unfurled with grace and intuition.

Let’s Fly workshop series

October, 2011 ~ Groton, Massachusetts

We’re extraordinarily busy. We run here and there, working, crossing things off the to-do list, putting out fires. We take care of home and family. We look for ways to enjoy ourselves in the moment as the clock ticks ever faster. There is always something or someone that needs attention.

Take three Sunday afternoons this October to take stock with a fresh perspective and ensure that the way you spend your days, and the long list of items on your to-do list, are actually reflections of your true intentions and wildest dreams.

Share this:

Like this:

I took part in my first teleconference today and I rocked it! I’m 39 and I was genuinely terrified to do this call. My husband who has done a thousand of these calls is out of town so I didn’t even have him to lean on. I was on my own. Just me. Okay, let me back up a bit.

I’m going to be a Creativity Coach. An actual Kaizen Muse! This time last year I was a burnt-out daycare provider. I was also an uber-talented photographer (in my own mind) and a wannabe writer. I needed a change. Badly. I felt like I was going to explode. I made the decision to close my daycare and be happily unemployed until I figured out what my next move was. In September 2010 I started my blog, Living Life Photographically. In November 2010 I opened up my first Etsy shop and filled it with my best prints. I joined a few teams and held my breath. I’d never sold anything before and had no idea what I was doing.

One morning in March 2011 I finally got my first sale from a stranger for one of my prints. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I hollered for my hubby to come downstairs to confirm that what I was looking at was my first sale. It was indeed, I’d made my first $30 from my photography! I sold a few more prints after that and I continued to blog my butt off. My readership grew to in the 400’s and I was now lining up guest posters and conversing regularly with some crazy talented women. In the meanwhile I had come across Studio Mothers and Miranda graciously said yes when I e-mailed her to see I was Studio Mother material. I discovered (and have a total girl crush on) Goddess Leonie. I joined her forum and started networking there.

I then got the itch to do something a bit more hands-on with my photography. I’d created my ‘Write’ print and it was selling fantastically. I wanted to be able to offer it to those who didn’t want it as a print. Long story short, I got into the jewelry biz. I shrunk down my images and made jewelry from them. My jewelry then started to outsell my photography so I closed up my Photography by Jodi shop and opened up Creative Life Designs. I transferred over my favorite prints and sold them in this shop instead. It was the best decision. I maintain 1 shop and sales are steadily growing. I was officially a WAHM. I was making my own money!

But something was still missing. I was using my hands to fill my creative need but my brain was craving more. I then came across Miranda’s coaching site and filled out her questionnaire about my creative habits. It took me 45 minutes and I tried to be as honest as possible. It was while answering these questions that I realized I wanted to do more for my fellow creatives. If I could, at 39, have so much fun writing for my blogs (I started a 2nd blog, Creative Life Designs), enjoying my photography and making jewelry, why couldn’t others have this same opportunity? I know that sounds simplistic. I know that not everyone can quit their job tomorrow to pursue their dreams, but what if I could give them a gentle nudge to at least consider this possibility? And if they considered it, what if I could help them realize it? Read more

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

welcome!

Thanks for stopping by! In this creative community, you can share your creative intentions, receive support in making those goals happen, and discuss all things related to creativity. While we're primarily focused on the issues that creative mothers encounter, all are welcome.

E-mail Subscription

Enter your e-mail address to subscribe to Studio Mothers and receive notifications of new posts by e-mail.

header art

Header image copyright Miranda Hersey.

Copyright notice: All content and images published in this blog are owned by the original authors or Studio Mothers. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Sploggers will be aggressively pursued.